Interestingly, all of the extremely intelligent individuals (EII’s) I have met and befriended during my lifetime have always been, exceptionally courteous, mostly helpful and just genuinely enjoyable to be around. I personally conceptualize the “extremely intelligent” as those people with an IQ starting around 150 towards nearly 200. (I have not yet met anyone with an officially and reliably recognized IQ of above 200.)

I cannot say the same for the few above average intelligence individuals (AAI’s) I have purposely spent time with. These people, while often helpful in a limited and typically narrow way, are not usually very enjoyable to be around. I have found such individuals to be either more competitive or more lackluster than average. It would make sense, considering that they comprise a subsection of the population that exists within what may be viewed as a grey area between ordinary and extreme intelligence.

I ,allegorically speaking, found that to the AAI this is a mere dumb ape. To the EII it is a Hollywood CGI representation of one of the most complex creatures besides humans.

The main difference in those with extreme intelligence which I have personally distilled over time, is that these individuals tend to have a very broad scope of interests, as well as a characteristically high depth (understanding the very components of a subject) and simultaneously high level understanding (possessing a workable understanding of the most complex thematics within a given subject).

In my personal experience I discovered that above average intelligence, which I classify as ranging between around 110-130 IQ points tends to be characterized by a more narrow minded set of interests, a lower level understanding of those interests, including mistakes in understanding and processing of information within areas of chosen profession. This means that such individuals may have a deep and high level understanding of usually one comparatively narrow subject area, yet are either slower to work out new problems or tend to be more likely to make mistakes in even their chosen narrow area of expertise.

The most disturbing difference besides these two brief comparisons, is that AAI’s tend to come across as slightly more arrogant, often seeming more intelligent due to putting on a show of expertise when within a social context. Those of similar or lower intelligence will often mistake such behavior for signs of extreme intelligence, although upon closer inspection, this is clearly not the case. One easy way I have discovered to determine whether an individual is an AAI or an EII is to question them on a broad variety of subjects or alternatively, to question them on deep level concepts related to either a field in which they do not specialize in or alternatively, to question them on high level concepts within one in which they do specialize in.

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine concerning the nature of deific masks, specifically the mask of Set in Egyptian mythology.

Here is an excerpt from the conversation:

It starts with a quote concerning the deific mask of the ancient Egyptian deity Set in relation to the Kia concept as coined by Peter J. Carroll in Liber Null/Psychonaut.

Quote from John (name altered) The Black Flame concept in the Temple of Set seems to be similar to Kia of Liber Null/Psychonaut. Kudos to Aquino for a clever way how to make Set different from all other gods – he is a giver of the Black Flame, i.e. giver of source of consciousness, perception and will. Giver of the source through which we created all other gods. I personally do not see any god to be “more prominent” or completely different then others, but it is a clever mental trick how to elevate Set.

Here follows my response:

Very interesting observation concerning the similarity of the Kia and the Black Flame.

As for “making Set different”, I think that is a misperception. I will explain why.

a) Every deity is different from any other deity, including deities that are exceptionally similar across various pantheons. For instance: Set is not the equivalent of Odin, or Tezcatlipoca, Satan, or any other deific mask, although all could be viewed as reflections of the “Prince of Darkness” mask in various differing cultures.

b) Set is the Neter of Isolate Intelligence, meaning he is a subtle gateway to the pure Platonic form of “Isolate Intelligence” but not the form itself, as this form cannot be directly apprehended (as in Plato’s theory of Forms). The Neteru represent the principles which sustain the objective part of the cosmos (Think of the elements, time, justice and so forth). Set is the only Neter that represents a force outside of the natural cosmos (which in your personal reality reflects the difference between objective and subjective reality), and is hence considered non-natural. This is not a principle developed by Aquino, it is something pretty obvious when you observe natural order and the existence of sentience and the effect this sentience has. The ancient Egyptian Priesthoods recognized this, hence why Set is the only Neter represented by an animal that cannot be found in nature. There have been comparisons, but no animal 100% percent resembles the humanly translated symbol Set takes in Egyptian mythology.

A good modern illustration of this is the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The Monolith represents a device that is transferring the isolate intelligence principle into simple
primates.

A graphic representing the frontal lobe in action.

c) A more simple model for the understanding of Aquino’s approach is the Vedantic model of the cosmos, which is essentially made up of three great divisions. There is a gross realm corresponding to material reality, there is a subtle realm which in Western Occultism may be equated with something like the “astral level” and there is a causal level which roughly corresponds to the causal realm of Platonism. I.e. the realm made up of the Platonic first principles.

d) Following on from the above points, you could not apprehend other Gods without “Set”, or to be more precise, you could not apprehend nature without the principle of isolate intelligence (for which Set is a deific mask) inherent in yourself as a human. This is why the deific mask Set, could mythologically be interpreted to be “the God that created the Gods” or rather “the God that perpetually creates the Gods“, moment to moment.. Hence even if the objective realm, which is according to the Platonic theory derived from and sustained by the pure forms or Neteru exists objectively (which Aquino recognizes) – you would be no more capable to apprehend or even conceptualize it without intellect, the ability to separate yourself from the objective realm on a subjective level in order to cognize it.

“John Dee and the Empire of Angels: Enochian Magick and the Occult Roots of the Modern World“.

It suggests that John Dee, aside from being the original “007” coined the term “Empire” and in fact helped to bring about the British Empire, magickally and otherwise.

– For some reason I was recently thinking about how the Nazis used to burn a lot of their enemies’ books in order to suppress/repress the spread of the thought contained therein.

– Not too long before that, at the end of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud developed his theory of “Repression”. British Magician Austin Osman Spare adopted the idea into his theory of Magick and developed a Sigil Magick method involving the deliberate forgetting or repressing of a Sigil that has been charged in order to increase its potency by implanting it in the subconscious mind.

– Which brings us to a recent “hypersigil” called “Liber Al Vel Legis” received by Aleister Crowley in 1904. It can perhaps be considered the textual basis for the entire Aeon of Horus..

– There is a suggestion in Liber Al Vel Legis to destroy it after the first reading. Those less familiar with Magick will perhaps be astonished at this and believe it to be a ploy to sell more books. Those more familiar with Magick and in particular the theories mentioned above (Repression, deliberate forgetting) may recognize that the mechanism of destroying the book after its reading, will more easily act to implant its contents in the subconscious mind while the conscious mind is likely to forget most of its contents.

– Wilhelm Reich, a onetime student of Freud, saw his books burned, not in Nazi Germany, which by the way he escaped, but in the US, where he sought to live a new life.

John Dee juxtaposed with the Stele of Revealing.

Apophenic Summary:

Freud initially discovered and defined the concept of involuntary repression.

Liber Al Vel Legis introduced the concept of deliberate repression for Magickal purposes via the suggested destruction of itself. It further states that its study is forbidden, another key to deliberate repression.

The Nazis, in their burning of unwanted texts may have involuntarily produced the opposite of what they had intended. By repressing their opponents’ works through fire, bans and various other threats and actions, they may in fact, according to the theory of deliberate magickal repression, have magickally added to their potency. (Note that the term “holocaust” historically signifies a sacrificial burning on an altar) Note that since 1945 a lot of these texts have found plenty of support internationally and it was during the 1960’s when their “Weimar Vibe” perhaps found its culmination.

Interestingly, it was Hitler and his National Socialists, who permanently handicapped Dee’s British Empire via the fighting of WWII, to the point that the “Empire of Angels” as Louv calls it, was no longer sustainable and colony after colony became independent. The political Equinox of the Gods, as one system of Magick (Enochian) gave way to another (Thelemic).

What if you took Jessica Alba’s striking beauty, Will.iam’s style, Gwyneth Paltrow’s penetrating insight and added Gary Vaynerchuk’s hardcore entrepreneurial spirit and day to day experience into the mix and turned it into a TV show? You’d get Apple’s 2017 “Planet Of The Apps”, a show for VC’s and Start Up Founders to meet and match and potentially launch some groundbreaking new Apps that could disrupt industries and alter certain business landscapes.

Here are the 3 most potent takeaways I got from watching Episode 1…

1 Have An Outstandingly Valuable Product That Fills A Key Need

The Four Celebrity Jurors Are Faced With A Tough Decision. Should They Say ‘Yes’ To Companion App’s founders or send them back home?

The truth is that in order to really stand out from the competition and stand a chance in front of the jurors, and more importantly, to stand a chance in the marketplace, you really need a product or service that is outstandingly valuable and fills a key need. Ideally nobody else is currently filling that need. I know it sounds like such a simple concept and yet the vast majority of participants failed to come up with such a product or service. In the case of “Companion App” (@getcompanion) the need to feel safe while spending time outside alone – especially in dangerous environments or during dark hours – was filled by providing a service that lets users add their closest friends to the app and allows them to virtually be with them in realtime. Any danger to personal safety is immediately registered and can be responded to either manually or automatically based on certain pre-programmed triggers within the app. The reason the concept resonated with the jurors was that a) it is based on one of the strongest human emotions: fear and b) it provides a very good reason for people to connect digitally.

2 Evaluate Anything That Can Go Wrong

The Two Companion App Founders Are Facing A Difficult New Challenge As Google Has Just Introduced A Similar Service

You have to evaluate all the strengths and perhaps more importantly, the weaknesses your product or service has. This is key to self awareness and market awareness, which in turn is key to the success of your product or service. During the initial presentation, Companion App’s pitch appeared pretty solid and even managed to convince Gary Vaynerchuk of its viability. That said, once the marketing master himself arrived on scene to coach the two founders on how to get it funded by VC & Angel investors, a big load of ‘good old surprise’ hit the fan. Google had just released its new service “Trusted Contacts”, which turned out to be almost exactly the kind of product “Companion App” wanted to be. While the two had a plan B in place it was not as strong as it could have been. Gary Vaynerchuk essentially ordered them to cold Email around 20% of the leading family owned security businesses in the US, in order to secure enough financial backing to at least give the start up enough financial runway prior to their pitch to Lightspeed. If you don’t want to depend on last minute emergency decisions for your successful pitch you should seriously consider brutally assessing your product or service’s exact weaknesses and iron those out prior to pitching.

3 Become An Eminem Of Emotional Intelligence

I swear I’m not talking as a fanboy when I say that Gary Vaynerchuk’s extreme level of emotional intelligence essentially secured the deal. Lightspeed Venture did after all decide to invest 1 million $ into ‘Companion App’, but not before some serious questioning and a moment of serious classic ‘awkward silence’ when Nicole Quinn (@Nik_Quinn) brought up the topic of the similarity between Google’s new ‘Trusted Contacts’ service and the service Companion offers. I mean the fact that Gary hammered the importance of that issue into his two protegés’ heads (see the 2nd point in this article) was important enough but what he did next was simply a stroke of genius. He responded saying that he made sure the two would spend a lot of time fearing Google while developing the app. This statement not only conveyed an understanding of Lightspeed’s position on Gary’s part, but literally disarmed the whole argument that Google’s product would be dangerous competition. He literally spoke as though he was a Lightspeed VC investor and made sure that their concerns were addressed. The speed at which he did so clearly demonstrated that this guy is an Eminem of emotional intelligence. He was freestyling, you can tell he constantly thinks in this manner. This is salesmanship- and “marketing-think” at its finest. So the key here is to always address your product from the perspective of the market. Don’t simply consider your own position, but far more importantly, think from the position of the market, because after all, they are the ones who are supposed to buy into your idea.

Come on who hasn’t heard of it yet, the “fidget spinner” phenomenon is everywhere these days. 2 weeks ago I told my coworker about fidget spinners. At the time he or my other co-workers had absolutely zero idea of what I was talking about. Not anymore, he was the first guy in our business to go and order his very own fidget spinner about a day after I mentioned the thing. I never even told him to order, he just did it. Try the same with say, a Nintendo Gameboy. I mean who doesn’t remember playing the Nintendo, but who’d want one today? So what is it that currently makes the fidget spinner revolution literally outperform everything from Red Bull to Spaghetti? The answer is not too far removed from what made the Gameboy popular when it first came out.

1) Make Your Product Simple

The concept is extremely simple. Everything from the name down to the functionality and use of the fidget spinner is seriously simple. Most fidget spinners only consist of a handful of parts. The idea is to be able to place your thumb and your index finger on it and then to spin the middle part. That is the most basic concept of the fidget spinner and it is so simple that it resonates with people. At the same time it is scalable in terms of the skill that is applied to it. You can do lots and lots of different tricks with the thing if you want to.

2) Make Your Product Different & Brandnew

I think one of the most important and peculiar things about the fidget spinner is that the whole concept is totally new. It is a whole new brand category, similar to how energy drinks were unheard of before Red Bull hit the market back in the 1980’s. The concept of the fidget spinner is very novel, one gets the feeling that by jumping on it they are avant garde, ahead of the crowd, someone special. So make sure your product really stands out from the rest in your category, or if you can, invent a whole new category.

3) If You Can’t Code: Make It Analogue

Most fidget spinners are entirely analogue. That is not inherently strange but when you consider that younger generations spend most of their time in digitalized spheres like game landscapes or apps such as Snapchat or instagram, then to think that people would actually spend time with a tool that is entirely analogue is pretty damn strange! My rule of thumb is, if you can’t do something, either take time to master it or stay away from it and focus on your strengths instead. So if you can’t do digital products, then focus 100% on creating an analogue product.

4) Make A Product That Changes People’s State Of Mind

The fidget spinner utilizes some of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concepts from his bestselling book “Flow”. For example, the fidget spinner presents us with a very basic task that is easy to do: You hold it and you spin it. After that you can keep on building your skills on the fidget spinner in a structured manner. You always know what you are up to next and it all feels like play. Combine that with the trance inducing effects playing with your spinner brings after holding or looking at it for a while, then you’ll see that really the fidget spinner is an excellent toy to potentially enter a flow state. It makes time go by real fast and was originally conceived as a toy that would alleviate the symptoms of ADHD for a reason.

5) Utilize The Bandwagon Effect By Doing Free Giveaways

Once a mass phenomenon gains traction, it becomes very hard to stop it. So many people are using fidget spinners that the idea has received massive social proof. If everybody wants to have one we think it must be good. Besides that, if everybody wants to have one then we’d be left out if we didn’t. Very real concerns for popularity and importance emerg at least on a subconscious level, when thinking about the fidget spinner and its implications. So when you release a product, make sure you get it into many different hands so that the word can be spread fast. When a lot of people have it, others will want to have it too. One of the best ways to get lots of people to jump on the bandwagon soon is to utilize free giveaways. This by the way also builds trust in your brand.

6) Make It Affordable

The low barrier of entry makes the fidget spinner easily affordable. Even if you can’t afford one, they are easy to make and there are plenty of tutorials on how to make one on sites like Youtube. The inherent simplicity of the fidget spinner is also what makes it so cheap. You can literally print your own model using a 3D printer or simply order one on Ebay or Amazon for less than 5$ a piece. The beauty of this is that even a person who figures he doesn’t enjoy fidget spinning won’t feel like he’s been ripped off. While the investment may not exactly be as good as Berkshire Hathaway stocks, you won’t feel bad about it even if you don’t like to spin. This is an ideal product for salespeople, because it provides many benefits and nobody will be annoyed due to spending too much money. When you release your product, make sure it is cheap enough for everybody to have one. This way you make it inclusive and you make the transactions enjoyable for everybody involved including the salesperson who won’t feel any guilt.

Do you want to be more effective and start an honest, highly effective way of marketing while building your personal brand? Who better to imitate than Gary Vaynerchuk, the man, the legend. Here are 5 ways to use Gary’s almost infinite wisdom and become more effective in life and work:

1.Spot Trends & use them to your advantage immediately and consistently

Gary Vaynerchuk is known to take advantage of trends way before the masses catch on to them. He is one of the most ingenious marketing arbitrage experts out there. Examples of this are that he was one of the first people in e-commerce, as well as one of the first to utilize Google AdWords to promote his wine business. When Social Media first made rounds he was one of the first to ignore the nay sayers entirely. Instead of focusing on all the negative opinions about this new realm of digital marketing, Gary mapped out a takeover strategy and has since built a massive following on the largets platforms out there including Facebook, Instagram as well as Snapchat. This brings us to the next point.

2. Never dwell on negativity

Too many people dwell on negativity. It is extremely hard to ignore negativity after all. It is everywhere, and it is also strongly ingrained in most people’s subconscious belief systems. Most people have no idea what they are capable of. They don’t have the energy to do what they want to be doing because they do not believe it can be done. And what about day to day interactions with others, in the home, at work, after work, online and so forth. A lot of people face negativity from others on a daily basis, whether it is their family, their friends or competitors, there is a lot of negativity in unexpected places. Well not so for Gary Vaynerchuk. A lot of his self confidence is based on what he terms his almost total self awareness. Next time you are stopped by some negative occurrence do not dwell on it. Who cares if others want to experience negative emotions, it is your job to really focus on your mission and move on building your empire!

3. Go All in as though life is binary

Gary’s mindset states that life is binary. This means that he firmly believes that one has to go ‘all in’ in one’s mission to really stand out from the crowd. Think about it, too many people make half assed attempts at success, they spend 1-2 hours a day on their own personal mission while spending at least 8 hours a day at a job which they often do not perform very well and let alone in a distracted manner. Gary is all about going all in, meaning that while he maintains that sleep is important, he maximizes the time that he is awake, dedicating as much of that time to his personal mission as possible. That means that instead of wasting time, he spends practically every minute of every waking hour furthering his mission, whether it be through producing content, managing his employees or connecting with influencers and giving advice to his countless followers. This brings us to the next point.

4. Constantly connect and stay on the move

Gary Vaynerchuk is almost constantly on the move and connecting with people all over America and the rest of the world. I think during the last week alone he and David Rock (who ingeniously documents Gary’s life) went on over 20 flights. That is an insane amount of flying and travelling, reminiscent of the early Jesuits who spread their mission around the globe in an almost fanatical manner. The importance of travel cannot be underestimated. It constantly forces an expansion of perspective, movement of thought and makes dwelling on negativity almost impossible while providing plenty of opportunity to connect with people. Gary has grasped the advantages of constantly being on the move and he keeps on moving and moving. Where have you travelled this year? Consider moving more and using those travels to meet and connect with new people everywhere.

5. Always deliver more value than you take

Unlike most marketers, Gary Vaynerchuk’s mission is not about selling you shit up front. On the contrary, he spends months and months just ‘jabbing’ as he calls it, meaning he really connects with his audience by reading, listening and understanding. Most people would think this is stupid, because after all, a business can only survive by selling, right? Wrong! What he does while communicating in this manner, is he is gaining a massive and unprecedented understanding of the market and its conditions. By gathering opinions and feedback from tens of thousands of people over the course of many months, all while delivering value through giving away his cutting edge insights – Gary is in fact doing priceless market research which allows him to test his concepts for free. This way, his products and services undergo a massive, almost incomparable ‘proof of concept’ phase, which allows Gary to taylor them to his market and ensure their success. On top of this, the extremely deep level market insight allows Gary Vaynerchuk to truly serve his Vaynermedia clients, who require Marketing experts with exceptional market insight in order to deliver the right solutions. Next time you plan to release a product, make sure you fit it to your market as best as you can. Consider using Gary’s jabbing approach and really, truly connect with your market so that your product or service really meets your market’s expectations upon release. This in truth is the only way to effectively sell while building your own personal brand and really maximizing market and self awareness through mutual feedback.

To keep up to date with me follow my Twitter at www.twitter.com/hagasteiger

Remember that horrible acne infested geek with the massive glasses whom everybody used to avoid in school? He likely is the CEO of a successful startup now. Do you ever so often hear people complain that the economy is bad, wages are getting lower while taxes are increasing and inflation is on the rise? Everybody has this subtle feeling that the financial system is not quite the way it should be right? People finish college and can’t find jobs. Strange…or maybe not!

Is The World Nearing Its End?

During the last few decades since the personal computer has become available to the public, a lot of change has transpired, very transformational change that has effected pretty much every area of human life, and not just in the Western world. In fact, the Western world, strangely seems to be lagging behind hard when it comes to teaching people how to adapt to the change. The fact is, due to digitalization and associated massive trends like the social media revolution (who out of your friends is not on Facebook yet?) jobs are increasingly moving in a direction which is computer-centric and requires corresponding skills.

Due to a variety of factors, jobs which are non computer related are less and less in demand. As personal wealth in many Western countries has peaked, fewer people than every decided it would be necessary to adapt to the changing tides. Think about it, if you can live on credit and don’t actually need to work much, then why learn any of the new skills required in the 21st century? Simultaneously as machines are taking over a lot of manual and increasingly, non manual jobs, fewer people are required in the workplace. Businesses like Amazon.com are run almost entirely on software algorithms which must be maintained by a hive of tech geniuses but simultaneously manage a lot of the thought processes ordinarily reserved to manual labour and even management positions.

“But, Jeff Bezos Is Evil!”

You think the economy is in bad shape? Perhaps you’re in bad shape. Contrary to most of the ‘old’ jobs which are increasingly out of demand, tech related jobs like computer programming jobs, machine learning or AI related jobs are increasingly in demand. In fact, there aren’t enough people to fill those positions in the West, hence the constant call for highly qualified foreign workers from other places like Asia. If you think the current situation is somehow bad, think again, it’s going to get a lot worse if you keep living in that paradigm. Adapt to the times and learn skills that are going to be relevant in the future. It may be uncomfortable as hell in the short run to say, train your brain to think in terms of a programming language like Python, but in the long run, you will benefit tremendously because your skills be be in demand, you will have taught yourself to study and learn and solve problems, to think logically and solve difficult problems, and you will have a programming language which allows you to do everything from machine learning to programming your own AI and much more at your fingertips.

So tomorrow when you wake up and question the future, during your next visit to Youtube when you see conspiracy theorists yelling the end is near, pause for a moment and think for yourself. The truth is, yes the end is near, it may already be here…for a lot of those old jobs which are no longer needed. At the same time however the future is here for those willing to grab it and learn the tech skills which are in ever increasing demand. Tech is difficult, tech, to begin with is extremely unsexy. Not a lot of people want to do that and that is fantastic news. Those who will invest the time and energy to study tech related skills and to master them are the winners of today and will be the winners of the future era. Even if you were unable to get a job today, if you had the skills to run your own website and ecommerce store you would be in a great position to still earn money, perhaps more so than in any job.

Why I Decided To Learn To Program Python

Python according to various websites including Wikipedia is a widely used high-level programming language ideal for general purpose programming. Let this one sink in: The language was originally conceived in the 1980’s and is still relevant today. When you think about how quickly the world, especially the tech world is currently developing, it strikes me as relatively unusual that a programming language would survive that long. Heck, is it not even more unusual that it is perhaps more relevant today than it ever has been in it’s almost 4 decade long history!? Don’t get me wrong, due to its flexibility and relative simplicity and its high level applicability, Python has always been important. But as we look ahead into the 3rd decade of the 21st Century, Python will serve many interesting functions, from deep learning to Artificial Intelligence programming and even web applications. The language is so versatile that it will allow you to code your own computer games. Why did I decide to learn Python? To be honest, Python in my view is currently the language with the greatest appeal for somebody just starting out to code.

How Am I Learning How To Code Python?

Simple, first I scanned Youtube for all the free courses which are out there already. There are several videos which purport to explain all you need to know in less than an hour, and they are awesome. There is also a free Python Course on Codeacademy. You might also be able to pick up some good second hand books on the subject on Amazon and similar sites. Generally speaking I believe that it all really depends on your intent. Do you want to become amazing at coding, do you want to raise your personal profile and achieve new levels of success in life or do you prefer to stick with your current opportunities? I think Python will open up a lot of opportunities for anybody willing to learn it, especially with AI and Machine learning continuously gaining relevance. So soak up all the free information that is already out there. I also set small challenges. For example at first I simply wanted to code a simple calculator, then I set more challenging goals like coding my own game. While my first attempts weren’t the best that has ever been coded in Python, far from it, these tasks are getting me closer and closer to my personal goal of mastering Python by mid 2018.